Aeroshuttle

Well we had the Enterprise E’s Cousteau three issues ago, now it’s time for Voyager’s Aeroshuttle, its equivalent of the Captain’s Yacht. In fact the runabout-like ship was designed with an emphasis on atmospheric flight, but like most auxiliary craft it is warp capable. Now we never got to see it in action in Voyager with no in-universe explanation. For some reason it was never used or referred to, even being overlooked when the Delta Flyer was built, from scratch. Maybe there was something wrong with it? Maybe the crew had to salvage parts from it to support Voyager?

Too bad this model isn’t quite up to scratch. Yes, the design is very lovely, a neat blend of shuttle and wings, but as we have had several auxiliary and fighter craft in the collection recently I feel I must be picky. For me this model suffers from the same problem as the USS Orinoco model – the detail is not crisp enough. This is because the top half is metal which seems to lack the precision needed for representing finer details possible in plastic. In this case I would have preferred the underside to be metal with a plastic upper which would maintain a reasonable weight but allow all the panels, etc to stand out better. As it is they don’t and the edges are a tad muted. As I say, this is too bad as this has the makings of an excellent model. This problem doesn’t affect all models, but is certainly more pronounced for the Aeroshuttle.

Pretty much everything else has been pulled off fine with decent build quality, plenty of detail and colour and of course both red and blue transparent plastics for the Bussard scoop and nacelle grills respectively. Look at the underside and you’ll see it perfectly matches the outline visible on Voyager’s ventral hull. This even appears on the Voyager model too!

Detailing: 3/5 – Disappointing for a Starfleet ship

Construction: 5/5 – Nicely assembled and good use of transparent plastics

Ship design: 4/5 – A runabout with wings

Overall: 3/5 – A great ship but let down by muted detailing

The magazine covers the design process of the Aeroshuttle plus an article on the Voyager sets. I had heard reasonably substantiated rumours that Eaglemoss are planning to print a book using articles from the magazines (plus some original articles too). I expect the Voyager sets article will make the cut if that goes ahead.

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6 thoughts on “Aeroshuttle”

I know what you’re saying about the lack of sharpness, but I don’t think it detracts all that much, really. Although, this is one of the best examples of how extreme it can be between the metal and the plastic. A nice enough model, however, even if it’s kinda non-canon since you only ever saw the bottom of it, and it was never referred to, much less seen in action.

Unlike the Runabout (still burnt about that as it is one of my favorite designs and the model had a ton of fine detail not used), this model was never created in great detail, in fact never made it to the a final approval stage with the production office. Even the work foundation did for its test reel was in comparison to what they were turning in, rather low rez.

Back when Doug still posted the images created by the various cGI artist for the modern shows and films, you can see the much softer look to the details of the aero shuttle then other works from the same period and medium (CGI for TV work).

If we want models to the standard that they were created, then this one would not ever been in much detail. neither n paper or CGI. In some ways in reminds me of the TOS remastered freighter from Charlie X. A ship that was based on the animated series, one who thanks to the angles that were used for every episode it appeared in, never had a it’s top surface details finished in CGI form (they were complete on paper though). So what did we get, we got the version straight from the cGI file created for TOS, laking all real details for its top surface.

We see Eaglemoss often do this, were we see them use the raw CGI file that was created bad for the shows, including the mistakes made by the workers at the same time. off course then we get various new CGII artist who often fill in some of those errors when doing the work for the magazine images (which i would assume are done far after the models have started their mass production.

We also see if there is a CGI file versus physical models made, that Eaglemoss has used the ready made CGI file, regardless of the differences (in some of them).

Kind of interesting to see a couple of the upcoming TOS remastered ships, apparently getting some additional polish on the CGI files, in stead of leaving them as thread bare as some of them are.

By the way thanks again for putting back the scoring level for the ships. ass a reader I really appreciate it (even on the ones where I disagree with). I especial like that you break it down into several categories. Out of the reviewers I follow, this is my favorite part of your reviews, and what I wished many, many others would do.